Saturday May 17, 2008, marks the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO); so chosen because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organisation on May 17, 1990. It's a timely day to remember that, as shown by the above map, homosexuality is still illegal in numerous countries around the globe.

For most people, the thought of coming out as queer or trans in a small farming community in Alberta would stir fears of social disaster. But for Christine Schulz, the first transgendered woman recruited by the Ottawa police, it was just one of the unexpectedly positive experiences she had on the way to transitioning in 1997.

Trans activists have expressed concern over appointments to a task force which will oversee revisions of the American Psychiatric Association' s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).

Gender-confused "rights"? Women should feel safe and not have to worry about ("transgender" ) men in dresses using female restrooms and shower facilities, say Maryland activists with the Citizens for Responsible Government.

Recent historical work reveals that Stonewall was not a singular moment of queer insurgency and that the mid-to-late 1960s was an era of queer radical political potential. According to Susan Stryker, professor of women's studies at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, the 1966 police raid at San Francisco's Compton's Cafeteria, in the Tenderloin district, helped launch a national movement for transgender rights. For Stryker, the term "transgender" doesn't name a kind of person but means "anything that breaks apart and makes visible" the ways in which people define their roles in society, such as through their gender or sexual identity and kinship structures. Events like the Compton's raid reveal the radical potential of queer politics in general.